


Positively Puzzled

by Vruity



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Kissing, Puzzles, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2019-09-28 12:50:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17183318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vruity/pseuds/Vruity
Summary: Jake surprises Amy with tickets to the event of the year - Amy's words, not his. And even though Jake is annoying, pranking her all the time and the most immature man she has ever met, Amy starts to think he is also kind of adorable, and a genuinely good person. And handsome - he's also handsome.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a shorter, cutesy fic. Child-friendly as well! Leave a comment if you enjoyed it!

“Peralta, don’t try me right now.” Amy frowned as she said this, not even having to turn around to know that her co-worker was standing behind her, undoubtedly planning to prank her in some way. She really didn’t have time for that at this moment, not when the situation had gotten so difficult.

“But Amy,” Jake whined, “I want to show you something!”

Amy closed her eyes for a moment and longed for her bed. It was about half past six and the entire precinct was working overtime because of a big case. Normally, she loved doing extra work. The paperwork, the thrill of knowing you’re doing something good for another, for the community – that was something she knew she’d love until the end of her days. But right now, when she hadn’t slept at all the night before because of some alarm that had decided on blaring throughout the entire neighbourhood, and her also being out of cigarettes, she was irritable. And having the big baby that was Peralta wanting her attention?   
She was close to snapping in his face, but she decided not to. She swivelled around in her chair.

“Yes, Peralta? What do you want to show me?”

His entire face lit up. He jumped up from where he was leaning on her desk – even though she had asked him at least a million times to ‘never do that again, Peralta’ – and began patting his pockets, as if he was searching for something.   
“You will never believe what I have here.” Amy wasn’t sure she wanted to know, remembering the times she had gotten a ‘surprise’ from Jake and ended up with stained clothes or problems with the captain, but nevertheless she waited on what Jake wanted present.

“A-ha!” Jake held something up. It seemed as if the thing he held up was made of paper, the fluorescent light of the lamps above them reflecting of the shiny white surface, and Amy still had no clue whatsoever as to what this thing could possibly be. Then he shoved the object under her nose.

Well, objects. There were two, to be exact. Two small pieces of paper, decorated with black ink and some blue details around the edges. They looked a lot like tickets.   
They _were_ tickets, Amy realised, and she quickly grabbed them from Peralta’s hands. Reading what was written on them, she suddenly felt like laughing.   
“How in the world did you get these?” Amy wanted to hug Jake, and his smug face suggested that he knew that.

“Some lady whose robbery I solved gave them to me as a thank-you gift.” He chuckled to himself. “Well, she initially offered me something else, but I wouldn’t do that because of morals. And stuff.” He cleared his throat.  
“Anyway, I googled what these tickets were for and since you are a giant dork who loves puzzling so much that she’d probably go to a convention for it, I figured I could make you happy with these.”

She looked at the small pieces of paper again. Puzzlecon. It was true! She knew about this event – of course she did. What self-respecting puzzler _didn’t_ know about Puzzlecon? She had always wanted to go, but had never been able to afford it. Even though many people think solving puzzles is lame, which it isn’t, this convention had people flocking to it from all over the world. It was one of the biggest international puzzle conventions that have ever existed.

“I am speechless, Jake.” She smiled at him, feeling tears well up in her eyes. “How can I repay you? I could bake you a… I could bake you something?” Two desks down Gina flinched, undoubtedly listening to everything they were saying to each other. Amy wanted to be offended, but she knew it was true – she was a horrible cook, and an even more terrible baker. Jake, on the other hand, was just looking at her. He smiled.

“You don’t have to repay me, just make sure I don’t die of boredom on this trip.”   
Amy wasn’t sure if she heard him right.

“Are we going together?” She asked him. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected him to do, after all, she had received two tickets instead of one, but this wasn’t it. She had initially thought of asking Kylie to join, but it hadn’t even sprung to mind that Jake could also want to come with her.

Jake looked puzzled, no pun intended, before he answered. “Uh, yeah? I thought it could be fun, you know?” He poked at her shoulder and Amy grew even more confused. “Doing some bonding. Become buddies.”   
Tonnes of questions popped up in Amy’s head. Eventually, she gave up trying to make sense of the situation. She decided just to nod and let it happen.

“Toit. I’m going to go finish up my work and I’ll see you on Sunday.” Jake pointed finger guns at her, like a twelve year old boy would, and went back to work at his own desk. Amy went to sit down as well, still a bit frazzled about the events that had happened just a mere minute ago. She really was going to the event of a lifetime with her annoying, yet kind of adorable, she admitted to herself, colleague. She smiled, shook her head and started finishing up the paperwork she had been working on before Peralta had interrupted her, unaware of her co-worker staring at her from his own desk.


	2. Seriously Screwed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first part of Puzzle Con!

That Sunday morning, Amy got up with some undeniable butterflies in her stomach. Whether they were there because of nerves or because of excitement, she didn’t know for sure. As she pulled on a light blue cardigan she had gotten from her mother, she wondered about the plans she had for today. She would probably start with the puzzle contest, because of two reasons. One, if she started early, she would have more time to think about the answer and then maybe win the prize everybody desired – a meet and greet with the puzzle creator for the New York Times. Two, if she got there as one of the first, she wouldn’t have to worry about there being not enough puzzles left for her and Jake.   
She thought this as she was brushing her hair and then nodded curtly to herself, pulling on her hair in the process. Through the muffled curses in her head she decided that if Jake wanted to go with her to this event, he’d have to help her solve those puzzles as well.

Her phone started ringing as she was brushing her teeth, and she almost knocked it from the sink as she made a grabbing motion toward it. Spitting out the foam she answered.  
“Hell…” She was quickly interrupted by a loud voice.  
“Amy! Hey, I already called a cab for you so you don’t have to, you know? You are very welcome. We’ll be there in… wait a moment.” Amy listened as she heard Jake ask the cab driver something on the other end of the line. She swiftly cleaned her toothbrush and went to grab her coat and bag.

“Okay, I’m ready to…” Jake interrupted her again, this time sounding even more excited than the time before, if that were even humanly possible.   
“We’re here! Get your butt outside!” Amy chuckled and went to hang up the phone, but she could have sworn she heard Jake mutter _‘Wow, smooth, Peralta. That’s how you get the girl’_ , but then again, she probably imagined that.

She stepped outside and closed the door of her apartment behind her, when she heard Jake’s loud voice all the way from downstairs. She couldn’t help but smile.   
Why couldn’t she help but smile? Amy wasn’t sure. Normally she would have thought that the yelling she heard from down the stairs was immature and very annoying, but today? When she was going to the event of the year? She kind of liked it.   
As she walked down the stairs she also realized what a thoughtful gesture it had been to give her those tickets. Especially considering he could have gotten laid instead of getting tickets. Amy frowned at the thought of Jake getting laid. Gross.

Jake nearly pulled her from the sidewalk into the cab, stabbing his elbow in her stomach in the process. Amy coughed.  
“Jake, please think before you decide to assault me.” She adjusted her bag on her lap, throwing a side way glance at the man sitting next to her. He merely grinned and patted her knee as an apology.   
Even though he withdrew his hand quickly after the initial touch, the feeling of his hand on her knee lingered for the entire cab ride – and Amy wasn’t sure why.

 

Even though they arrived at the hotel that hosted Puzzlecon early, outside of the building was a queue consisting of people who wanted to get in without pre-bought tickets. Amy resisted the urge to scoff at them. Even though she had always wanted to go to this convention, _the_ convention, she had never even considered lining up outside the building. There were only five to ten tickets to give away to the people at the door, and considering the (she quickly eyeballed the queue) hundred people or so standing outside, the odds of getting a ticket were slim to none. Besides, with one of the door tickets, not all of the activities were accessible.   
The puzzle contest for example, she thought smugly to herself, was only for the people with the pre-bought tickets.

She was so caught up in thoughts that she almost didn’t notice Peralta grabbing her wrist and tugging her towards the entrance. When they arrived at the beautiful, gold-looking doors and he let her go, she was almost disappointed.   
They showed their tickets, got in without any real fuss, and there they were. Amy softly gasped and just looked around, eyes trying to take everything in at the same time. There were so many amazing things to be seen! There you had the talks about solving an anagram in the smartest way, of course by one of the best professionals in the profession, and at the other side of the room was the crossword corner, where they had a new crossword every five minutes. Well, she smiled, not exactly new. The crosswords were from old New York Times papers, going all the way back to the forties.

“Ames, where do you want to go first?” Jake softly smiled at her, his eyes warm. She smiled back at him and pointed to the Puzzle Contest booth, which was still fairly quiet – only about five people were standing around it. Jake nodded curtly.   
“Alright, let’s rock.”

When they walked away, already having handed in their submissions, Amy felt excitement popping up once more. At least, that what she had started calling the butterflies in her stomach. She was sure they weren’t from Jake being so close to her, or being able to smell his deodorant, or his hands brushing past hers… What was happening?  
Amy shook her head, as if to will away the thoughts that she could be developing a bit of a crush on her colleague. She wasn’t, right? She looked at him.  
He was walking and talking to her about some case he had finished together with Boyle, making Die Hard references every now and then. Amy prided herself on recognizing those references. About a year before that, Jake had made a joke about something with a reference to that movie in it, which she didn’t understand. She was one of the few who didn’t get it – only her and Holt, to be more precise, and she didn’t enjoy being laughed at like that. So she watched all the Die Hard movies, so she’d never not understand one of his dumb jokes again. Now she began to wonder if that wasn’t also a sign of a developing crush – what normal person would watch seven movies to impress a co-worker?

She definitely liked Jake as more than a friend. She was so, so screwed.


	3. Walking and talking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy is really nervous now. As usual. Jake seems smooth, however. And then he proposes something interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, I hope this is good! I haven't really had much time to work on this, keeping in mind that I have exams coming up, but I hope you enjoy reading it! Leave a comment if you liked it, it really helps motivating me!

The remainder of the day she was uncomfortably aware of everything she was doing. She inwardly damned herself, she was so busy trying to act normal that she wasn’t enjoying PuzzleCon as much as she should. In fact, it seemed as if Jake was actually enjoying himself more than she was. Which was, of course, utterly and completely ridiculous, and not to mention, incredibly out of character. But it was true, and he was the one dragging her to new puzzle exercises or small shops that sold collections of old crosswords.   
At one of these small shops, they sold shirts, caps, phone cases and key chains. She initially wanted to walk past that – it was either something for the end of the day, or something to not go to at all. She would rather enjoy herself at the actual attractions. But then Peralta had to look at her in _that_ way, with _those_ eyes, and of course she then felt the faint flutter of butterflies in her stomach, and _of course_ , she _had_ to say yes at that point.  
But when they left with matching shirts, something Jake pointed out after the purchase was done, she felt content.

The day went by all too quickly for Amy, who was starting to make up excuses in her head to make Jake stay a little longer. As she was considering the ‘ _hey, I’m feeling quite hungry, do you want to go get some food?’_  and the, less probable, but still better than nothing  _‘it’s not that late, and I heard there is this cool movie playing in theaters right now, and, oh hey, there is a theater across the street, what a coincidence’_ the decision was made for her.

“I saw a bar when we were driven here, do you want to check it out?” Jake looked at her with an almost pleading look, but she was already sold. She nodded enthusiastically, a bit too much, she regretted immediately.   
“Yeah! Let’s do that!” She tucked her hair behind both ears and grabbed her bag a little tighter. Jake’s face lit up.

He grabbed her by her wrist. Her eyes immediately focused on the fingers that were now wrapped around her, suddenly not sure of anything. What to do, or whether she should do anything at all. Then he started pulling her across the street and her feet started moving automatically. She practically stumbled to the other side, eyes still on where he was touching her. He let go.   
Jake gestured to the busy sidewalk with his head. “I think it’s that way.”

“Well,” Amy blurted out, “let’s get a-walkin’!” She felt her heart sink after saying that.  
Really? A-walkin’? She wanted to close her eyes and let the earth swallow her whole. That was quite possibly the worst thing she could’ve said in this situation. No, she mentally corrected herself, this would exactly be the worst thing she could’ve said in any situation. Any at all.   
Jake, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind. He actually started laughing.

“Yes, ma’am. Let’s get a-walkin’.” He lead her through hordes of people, talking about nothing particular at all. Yet, Amy still felt awkward after her comment, even though Jake had laughed about it. Now she started to worry, as she always did. Was he laughing at what she had said because he had thought it was funny, or did he laugh at that because he thought she was weird? Jake was still walking and talking.

“…and that’s how you get kicked out of a Target in just seven minutes. Yes, you may clap.”   
Amy instinctively clapped, even though she had only really caught the last sentence. Was it really something to be proud of? Being kicked out of a store wasn’t necessarily something she’d be proud of herself, but Jake seemed quite smug.

“That’s, er, impressive!” She said, not sure whether or not she sounded sincere. Jake sighed, but smiled afterwards.

“Ames, you don’t have to pretend you enjoyed that story.” Amy wanted to protest at that, but he already continued. “I know you weren’t listening, so I made the last bit up.” He laughed at her, obviously not bothered by the fact that she wasn’t paying attention. She still felt guilty, though. Before she could apologize, he was talking again.  
“But now, I have to admit, I am intrigued,” he said the last word in a weird voice, raising one eyebrow and looking directly into her eyes. “about what you could have possibly be thinking about, to not listen to somebody’s story and risk being rude. Anything to say for yourself?”

Okay, shit. She wasn’t at all prepared for this. She started laughing, a bit self-consciously, as she tried to scramble together a plausible excuse.   
Think, dangit!

“I was, er,” she mumbled, not at all sure about how to continue that statement. “just, thinking about nothing in particular, I guess?” She concluded. Jake snorted, obviously not impressed.

“Yeah, right.” He looked at her with a faked serious look and said in a low voice. “Spill, Ames.”

Amy shuddered. Why, why now should she be attracted to Jake’s voice? This was just not fair, she said to herself. Why did the universe suddenly decide to mess up everything in this moment. She just shook her head at the man walking next to her.

“As I said, nothing in particular.” Jake still looked unimpressed. “No, really!” She tried again.

“Ames, one day you will realize,” he sighed dramatically, “that you can’t go on like this.”  
He shook his head. “Living a lie, not being honest to yourself.” Amy nudged his shoulder, starting to smile.

“Oh, shut up.” She laughed.

“No, I will do no such thing.” He emphasized every word with a wild hand gesture, nearly hitting a lady that was passing by in the face. She looked quite shocked, and Amy really started laughing now. “Amy! Live the truth! Live _your_ truth.” He dried some imagined tears, again, rather dramatically. He looked at her with the biggest grin she had ever seen on a grown man. Even bigger than when Boyle announced he had tasted the best beef wellington in New York, and he would not shut up about that for three weeks, at least. Jake continued.  
“Make a simple boy,” he put his hand on his chest, “like me, the happiest boy in the whole, wide world.” He nodded his head.

“Live your truth, Ames.” He concluded, whispering.

Amy was still laughing when he suddenly stopped, startling her.   
“We’re here!”

The bar looked rather cozy. Really cozy, Amy mentally corrected herself. In fact, she could already see at least three couples making out, and several others seeming as if they were on a date there. She smiled awkwardly at Jake. Had he known this?

Jake gestured to the door. “After you!”


	4. Bars and babbling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two off-duty cops with secret feelings for each other walk into a bar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes, this took wayyyy too long. Sorry for that! Please leave a comment if you enjoyed it!

After Amy stepped through the door she glanced around the room quickly, trying to scan the environment. A habit she had taught herself during policework, so she could easily see if anything were to be of any danger, but in this case also helpful in determining where there was a place to sit. She spotted a small booth, suitable for at least three people, but still empty.

Amy usually preferred sitting at the bar – that way she could walk away quickly and also check who made her drinks, but since the room was crowded, she would have to sacrifice a little comfort.   
Jake had also seen the booth and was now guiding her through the hordes of people. Suddenly, Amy felt him place his hand on the small of her back. A pleasant warmth spread through her entire body and she had to physically refrain herself from leaning into his touch. Sadly, he pulled his hand away once they had reached where they were going and they both sat down.

There was an awkward silence for five seconds. Then ten seconds. Then fifteen. Then:  
“So what do you want to drink?”  
“Is this a date?” Amy abruptly shut her mouth after asking that, embarrassment creeping up to show on her cheeks as she averted her gaze, trying hard to look as casual as possible while thinking of possible answers to his question to save her out of this mess.  
“A rum and coke would be great, thanks.”

Jake, who had silently been staring at her up to that moment nodded and sprung up from his seat. He gestured something with his hands.   
“Yes, well, great choice, really nice. Really, noice, yes really. A rum and coke is an excellent choice.” He then nodded once, sternly and to himself, turned on his heels and made a beeline for the bar. Once he was out of sight, Amy buried her head in her hands.

“Oh, my god.” She whispered to the placemat she was now quickly getting acquainted with. This was, possibly, the worst outcome imaginable. Well, no, he could’ve gotten angry and have started yelling or something like that. And at least, he didn’t seem to absolutely despise her now. Then again, he did practically run away after she said that. _Why_ did she say that?   
What if this wasn’t a date and now he thought she was weird and would never want to speak to her, ever, again?   
She looked up from the table, just in time to see Jake returning with their drinks. He placed his own beer on the table and then put her drink down in front of her. Amy was now focussing hard on the drink, not on his face, and so nearly missed the fact that he was grinning more broadly than he had when he got his hands on a signed poster from Die Hard. Seeing him like that made her grin back, and soon the ice (that she felt had formed after they stepped into the bar) was broken again, and they started talking.

 

“No, really! And then, when I asked him where he had gotten that expensive bike that had been listed as missing just two hours prior, he casually said: ‘Oh, you know. Craigslist.’ So then I asked him where he had picked it up, and, listen to this,” Jake shifted in his chair as he enthusiastically recalled this story, “he named the _exact_ place where the bike had gone missing in the first place! Can you believe that? At least make up an address, you know?”

Amy was laughing out loud by that point. The entire evening they had been swapping crazy cop stories – and also stories about high school, sports, family and one particularly interesting one about a mango at Walmart – but even though she had already heard this story, she still enjoyed the way he told it. In fact, she had noticed she enjoyed the way he talked about everything. The way he crinkled his nose and the way he timed his jokes. She could spend the whole evening, just watching him talk.

She was so lost in thought that she didn’t even realise he had asked her something.   
“What?” she asked, distraught. He chuckled nervously.

“Er, you asked me if this was a date at the beginning of the evening.” He swallowed and glanced at his lap before looking her in the eye. “Did you- Do you want this to be a date?”

Amy felt totally caught off guard. She closed her mouth, as she suddenly realized it had fallen open, and tucked her hair behind both her ears before trying to formulate a full sentence in her head. She did want this to be a date, she realized then. She actually wanted it really badly.

“I- yes.” She took a deep breath. “Yes, I do want this to be a date.”   
Jake smiled at her, his eyes twinkling like those of a little child. She felt the immediate urge to hug him. God, what had come over her?   
Yet, she kind of liked this. A lot.

“Great. That’s, that’s very very great. Thank you.” Jake looked confused after saying that and quickly tried to recover. “I mean, thank you for wanting this to be a date. Because that’s less weird than just saying ‘thank you’.” He closed his eyes for a short second.   
“I’ll shut up now, for a moment.”

“So, any more stories I should know about? It’s still about an hour until they close, and I don’t really want to go home yet.” Amy smiled at him. Jake smiled back and began telling another story.

“Have I ever told you about the time I saw somebody getting knocked out with a vintage doll? No? Oh, Amy, you are not going to believe this…”


	5. Street lights, hand-holding and more

As they walked out an hour later, the last one to have left the bar, they were holding hands. Amy still couldn’t quite believe that the entire evening had actually happened. She let go of Jake’s hand, just for a moment, to pinch herself. Jake looked at her questioningly and she shrugged.

“Had to make sure this was actually happening,” she smiled. Her eyes were tracing the contours of his face and taking in every detail. God, how had she never really noticed that his eyes were so gorgeous? Or the way his mouth looked when he smiled?

She had to physically stop herself from staring at those lips indefinitely. Yet when she looked back at Jake, she noticed that he was doing the same thing as she was, just moments before. She chuckled, feeling a bit nervous as his eyes didn’t leave her face. Jake stopped walking abruptly, standing perfectly still underneath a street light. He beckoned her to get closer and took her other hand. He didn’t say anything for a moment and licked his lips.

“Can I kiss you?” Her heart stopped for a moment and she didn’t seem to be able to answer the question.

“I- er..” Jake rolled his eyes and grinned at her.

“Excuse me, _may_ I kiss you?”

Amy laughed, actually amused by this silly joke. She turned around for a second, shaking her head and looked back at the grinning man in front of her. She nodded at him, still grinning.

“Yes, you big goof, you _may_ kiss me.”

Upon hearing that, Jake put his hand on Amy’s cheek and drew her in closer. Amy closed her eyes, feeling his breath on his lips, and closed the distance between them. It started out soft, just for a moment, but then Jake swept his tongue over her lower lip. Amy sighed and pressed into him, throwing his arms around his neck.

They were kissing. _Kissing!_ God, if somebody had told Amy from a year ago that she would be kissing her ‘annoying, childish co-worker Peralta’, then she would’ve laughed in their faces. But now, here they were stood, kissing each other, and she was enjoying every second of it.

Jake’s hands were tracing the outlines of her face before trailing down her body and ending on her hips. He pulled away for a moment and looked into her eyes.

“Hey,” he whispered, and smiled.  
“Hey,” she replied.

He pulled her in for another kiss and Amy closed her eyes again.

 

 

 

 

**\--- one year later ---**

 

“Honestly, Jake, hurry up! What’s going on in there that you can’t show me now?” Amy tapped her foot on the floor in impatience. Jake had been going on and on about some sort of special surprise, but had refused to tell her what it was. Even worse; he had told everybody in the precinct about it, and nobody would crack and confess. She had tried bribing Charles, but when that didn’t even work – _“I do really want to go to the pecorino festival Amy, but you know I can’t!"_ – she figured it was hopeless. It was really getting on her nerves that even now he stretched out the agony of not knowing.

“I’m ready!” She heard somebody slamming a door in the apartment, cringing slightly at the loud sound it created.   
“Whoops, sorry about that. Close your eyes, Ames!”

She did as she was told, not able to stop a grin from creeping on her face. Annoyed as she was, she really did love it that Jake would go to this length to surprise her. She only hoped that it wouldn’t be some sort of prank, but that was highly unlikely. She felt his hand covering her eyes, as if to make sure she wasn’t secretly peeping through her eyelids.

“Okay, and… open your eyes!”

Before her stood Jake, grinning broadly as he pushed to scraps of paper in her face. She looked at them confusedly, before really seeing what was on them. When she realised, she gasped and flung her arms around Jake’s neck, hugging him tightly.

“Are you happy with them?” She pulled back and kissed him, pulling his face close to hers.

“Puzzlecon? God, yes.” She mumbled against his lips, eyes still closed. Amy felt him smile against her lips.

“I love you.”  
“I love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! I hope you all enjoyed it, and sorry for the late updates... Next time, I'll make sure I've finished the entire thing before uploading it, haha. As always, please leave a comment when you're finished! It makes me feel good to have people enjoy what I make <3


End file.
